


Of hierarchies and favorites

by ichikonohakko



Series: Of just being joyful [2]
Category: JBJ (Band), Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: CAN'T WAIT FOR THEIR DEBUT SO WE'LL HAVE MATERIALS TO WRITE, Gen, JBJ FEELS FOR GOD'S SAKE, Kenta is a mother hen, and my thoughts of 'omg so taehyun is actually not bullied by his dongsaengs', my headcanon of JBJ's dynamics inspired by their vlive, particularly on sanggyun's 'you promise to only hit me when we're at home'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 02:55:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12160104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ichikonohakko/pseuds/ichikonohakko
Summary: In the matter of determining severity of an issue, Kenta found that JBJ had their own know-how and it was one of the most interesting thing he had ever encountered since he began training to be an idol.If Hyunbin was the one who brought the issue, chances were everyone won’t be thinking too much about it, unless he told it with whispers, then it's different. If Donghan was the one who brought the issue, everyone would take note of it, but let Donghan deal with it first. If it was Sanggyun, chances were the problem is already finished and he was just reporting to let everyone know. If Yongguk was the one brought the issue, then it was serious and it needed to be addressed to immediately. And if it was brought up by Taehyun-hyung or Kenta himself, then it was a matter that concerned all of them as a team and will need a 2 hours long sitting in the living room to talk about it.





	Of hierarchies and favorites

In the matter of determining severity of an issue, Kenta found that JBJ had their own know-how and it was one of the most interesting thing he had ever encountered since he began training to be an idol.

If Hyunbin was the one who brought the issue, chances were everyone won’t be thinking too much about it, unless he told it with whispers, then it's different. If Donghan was the one who brought the issue, everyone would take note of it, but let Donghan deal with it first. If it was Sanggyun, chances were the problem is already finished and he was just reporting to let everyone know. If Yongguk was the one brought the issue, then it was serious and it needed to be addressed to immediately. And if it was brought up by Taehyun-hyung or Kenta himself, then it was a matter that concerned all of them as a team and will need a 2 hours long sitting in the living room to talk about it.

To whom the matter was told to first also influence how others would determine the severity. As the resident mother of the group, most problems were told to Kenta. And Kenta would determine if he could resolve the matter as quietly as possible or not, if not, he will go to Taehyun-hyung and the leader would work out a solution. There hasn’t been an instance where Taehyun-hyung failed to resolve the problem, so Kenta didn’t know how the chain would continue if Taehyun-hyung didn’t manage to work out a solution.

If the matter was brought to Taehyun-hyung’s attention first, then their leader would be the one to do something about it. And Taehyun-hyung wasn’t a subtle person. He could be, if he wanted to, but most of the time he preferred expediency and straightforwardness. After the incident with Sanggyun, Kenta had told Yongguk who told the maknaes to _tell it to Kenta-hyung first if you don’t want another shit to go down_.

(The Sanggyun incident would always be remembered, really. Either as a joke or as a warning guideline, it will be remembered. Hyunbin, the instigator of the problem, who had foolishly went to Taehyun-hyung instead of going through Kenta first, had to apologize multiple times to Sanggyun.

Even when Taehyun-hyung was the one who had put Sanggyun in his place, Hyunbin was the one who felt so utterly guilty about it. Well, Kenta didn’t really blame him. Nobody expected Taehyun-hyung, in all his 168cm glory, to hit Sanggyun straight on the ribs when he heard from Hyunbin's whispers that the older rapper had been bullying the maknae line.

And it wasn’t all quiet either. Sanggyun had been furious, but Taehyun-hyung had challenged him head on. Kenta, Yongguk, and Donghan had been frantic to calm them down while Hyunbin froze in the corner. But in the end, the two of them went outside and when they returned, Sanggyun apologized to Hyunbin and Donghan, swearing that he’d be a better hyung while Taehyun-hyung just waltzed into the room he shared with Kenta with a neutral expression on his face.)

It had been the very incident that set the hierarchy of JBJ, really. And how terrifying Taehyun-hyung was (Sanggyun said that krumping is probably also a martial arts because Taehyun-hyung looked like he was dancing instead of brawling, Kenta haven't had the time to confirm that). The very next day, though, he joked around with them like nothing ever happened. He hugged Sanggyun early in the morning when they were lining up for shower and then he teased Hyunbin when the other took a long time in the showers. At first, Kenta was worried that Sanggyun would harbor distaste for their leader, but quite the opposite, he respected the small hyung even more. Kenta realized that there was always an air of arrogance around Sanggyun, even back when they were still doing Produce 101, but nowadays he never felt anything like that around Sanggyun anymore.

Just Be Joyful was the name the fans had given to them and at the first glance, these 6 people along with Taedong really were people who exuded joy all around. They all liked to tease one another and being rowdy, sure, but underneath that, they couldn’t be more different. Taehyun-hyung was severe and rough, Kenta himself was ambitious and all-around not a mushy person, Yongguk was calm and stoic, Sanggyun was arrogant and harsh, Donghan had tendency for brutal honesty, while Hyunbin always felt too much.

Sometimes Kenta saw Wanna One in variety shows and he observed how the maknae line never seemed to run out of praises to give to their hyungs. And in all honesty, Kenta agreed with them. Jisung-hyung was _the_ mom of all 101 trainees, Sungwoon-hyung was like the headstrong and straightforward brother, Minhyun was champion of the introverts, while Seongwoo, Jaehwan, and Daniel were the cool brothers who would equally chill and prank and teach their dongsaengs. They couldn’t be any more different.

Nevertheless, Kenta was glad that he was in JBJ. The maknae line of Wanna One were all budding superstars who seemed to have a lot of love to give. The skinship, the aegyo, Kenta was glad that Donghan and Hyunbin were not as cute and tiny as Jinyoung or Daehwi were. He wouldn’t know how to face them.

(Though, Kenta mused, if Daehwi were in JBJ he was sure that Taehyun-hyung would be a different a man given how whipped he was by the kid.)

 

 

It didn’t take a month for Hyunbin to be Sanggyun’s favorite maknae.

Kenta was honestly _amused_ with the fate of it all. Despite all the tough exterior of _I don’t have favorites among you little shits_ shown by Sanggyun, Hyunbin managed to worm his way into the rapper’s heart. At first, Donghan had been the one to tease him about it, then Taehyun-hyung, then Kenta, and finally Yongguk. And as mentioned before, if Yongguk had already said so, that meant it was the truth and the absolute truth. Nowadays, Sanggyun didn’t even bother to refute the teases he got whenever he spoiled Hyunbin. Kenta once asked Taehyun-hyung if he knew this will happen, the leader just laughed.

 

 

“Taehyun-hyung, who’s your favorite dongsaeng?”

The question came like a lightning in a cloudless sky and Kenta really wanted to kiss Donghan at that moment. He wanted to know, really, because in the hierarchy Kenta had constructed, Taehyun-hyung’s favorite dongsaeng must have some leeway in their leader’s mind. Kenta liked Taehyun-hyung, he liked Taehyun-hyung more than he liked all his team leaders in Produce 101, and for the first time in his life, he had desire to be liked by someone other than Teen Top’s Ricky. So Kenta perked up from the manga he was reading, listening in on the conversation.

Longguo (they decided that when Yongguk was out of his work mode, in which he was literally an immovable force of nature that cannot be evicted from the sofa in their living room, he was Longguo instead) seemed to notice Kenta’s movement and he turned to see what the conversation was about. It was a lazy Tuesday morning, they just got back from Weekly Idol shooting a few hours ago, and the four of them decided to laze around while mindlessly watching the week’s Hello Counselor. Sanggyun and Hyunbin were knocked dead in their room, tangled together in Sanggyun’s bed because Hyunbin was far too tired to go up his own bunk.

“Why do you ask?” Taehyun-hyung asked, his voice curt. They all knew that he wasn’t angry, though, because an angry Taehyun-hyung was a silent Taehyun-hyung and the fact that he still answered meant the leader just purely wanted to know why Donghan asked and the maknae knew it as well.

“Curious.” Donghan answered in a sing-song tone as he took the peanut butter sandwich from the leader’s plate. Taehyun-hyung rolled his eyes. “I’m curious too, hyung,” Longguo piped up from the sofa. “I mean, you complain about us little shits at least five times a day.” He snickered to Kenta, who laughed in return. “Yeah, hyung, I’m curious too.”

Taehyun-hyung stirred the coffee he had next to his sandwich as he hummed, seemingly contemplating his answer. He then turned to Donghan, who looked at him expectantly. “Well, it’s definitely not you Donghanie.” He giggled to himself as Donghan gave him a pout. “Don’t give me that pout, I’m not Sanggyun and you’re not Hyunbin.” They laughed.

“What about you, Kenta-hyung? Who’s your favorite dongsaeng?”

“Longguo,” Kenta answered without missing a beat. Longguo lazily offered him a fistbump and they grinned to each other.

“Well, as long as you guys aren’t as ridiculous as the idiots over there,” Taehyun-hyung pointed to the room where Sanggyun and Hyunbin were sleeping now with his thumb. “I’ll support this hyung-dongsaeng relationship.” He went over to the loveseat across the sofa where Longguo and Kenta were and drank his coffee with a smile on his face.

 

 

Even when they shut the blinds tight, the sun rays still peeked into their room, and that was how Kenta saw Taehyun-hyung’s smile as he talked to his leader.

“And they asked me who I like the most, hyung. Isn’t that cute?”

Choi Junhyuk laughed, along with another deep voice Kenta recognized as Hotshot’s other vocal, Timoteo. _“Yeah well, Sungwoonie, Yoonsan, and Hojungie also ask that to us all the time. It’s a maknae-line thing.”_ Choi Junhyuk said, laughter still danced in his tone and Kenta made note of how warm it was compared to the nights when Taehyun-hyung sounded lost. Taehyun-hyung laughed in return.

_“But do you have a favorite Taehyun-ah?”_ Timoteo asked. _“I mean, we all have our favorite among the members. It’s obvious that Hojung is my favorite and Junhyuk likes you the most while Yoonsan still won’t admit that he’s whipped by Sungwoonie.”_ There was a faraway shout of ‘I’m not!!!’ followed by a harmony of laughter, Taehyun-hyung followed them suit.

They talk about other things, of how Hotshot were doing and how Sungwoon-hyung had called Choi Junhyuk a few days ago, seemingly worried about Taehyun-hyung. It was warm, it was nice, Kenta envied them…

“Well, thinking about it, I do have my favorite among JBJ.” Taehyun-hyung said abruptly, but Choi Junhyuk didn’t seem surprised. Kenta figured that the other must have known of Taehyun-hyung’s tendency to not think in a linear fashion when having a long conversation. It took Kenta a few weeks to get used to his leader’s habits, he assumed that Hotshot members were much more familiar to it than Kenta ever were.

_“Who? Is it Kim Donghan? Kwon Hyunbin?”_

“Kenta, I guess, he’s not as tiring as the others are.”

Kenta curled into his blanket, desperately trying to appear as he was still asleep while trying his best not to laugh. It made him giddy, being Taehyun-hyung’s favorite, he didn’t understand why but he liked it. A lot.

(And not because he thinks that he may have a leeway with his leader. He just genuinely likes it.)

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah. It's a series now. Kill me.


End file.
